Ribble Valley MP welcome tough immigration laws

Ribble Valley MP Nigel Evans has welcomed the announcement by the Prime Minister David Cameron that tough new measures will be included in an Immigration Bill to be published in the Queen’s Speech.

The Bill will include the introduction of a new criminal offence of “illegal working”, which will close an existing loophole in the law that means illegal immigrants and those who have overstayed their visa cannot be prosecuted for working. The Bill will also ban companies from only advertising jobs abroad before looking for British workers.

During the recent election campaign immigration was one of the biggest issues of concern for the people of the Ribble Valley and I am confident that the announcement of this Bill will demonstrate that this Government is tackling immigration seriously

Nigel Evans MP

Mr Evans said: “This Bill is not about putting up a wall around Britain, but it is about making sure that the rules are properly adhered to.

“The levels of immigration we saw under the last Labour Government were unsustainable and did real damage to our labour market and hit the wages of everyday people.

“During the recent election campaign immigration was one of the biggest issues of concern for the people of the Ribble Valley and I am confident that the announcement of this Bill will demonstrate that this Government is tackling immigration seriously.”

The new immigration bill will also give councils more powers to tackle rogue landlords, while foreign criminals awaiting deportation will be made to wear satellite tracking tags.